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Chef'sChoice 15 Trizor XV - Silly question time again

Hi

Another one of my silly beginner questions.

What would be more abusive to a good knife ?

The Chefs Choice or a set of waterstones being used by a beginner ? now of course i know a stone will cause damage if used stupidly, i mean if its used by a sensible person with a degree of thought just not much experience.

Been around enough to understand that waterstones are the correct way to go but if you had somehigher end knives would it be totally destructive to put them through the chefs choice ?

Anything power grinding sharpening setup will be worse for a knife than water stones in an inexperienced hand. Worse comes to worse, you will scratch sides on your knife, but you won't take too much from the edge, as Chef's Choice would.

If you must have a sharpening system, get Edge Pro.

M

"All beauty that has no foundation in use, soon grows distasteful and needs continuous replacement with something new." The Shakers' saying.

IMO it would be totally destructive to put a nice knife through a chef's choice. It would totally screw up whatever bevel is there. A beginner on a high grit stone would be less damaging to the knife—in most cases.

If you're worried about using stones, just make sure you don't get a super coarse one while you're still learning. Get a 1k or 2k to practice on with a beater knife. If you mess up the angle the scratches won't be that noticeable and you won't take off that much metal anyway

Free-handing on stones really isn't that difficult if you understand the basic concepts and have a bit of dexterity...just like anything, it takes time and practice (you'll hear this repeated over and over again)

If you are that uneasy about it, you can always pick up a guided device like the Edge Pro, but I think you should buy two stones and give it a shot--the reward is great.

The main thing initially is using a beater knife until you feel comfortable holding an angle pretty consistently. Once you do that, try out on a 'lower end' knife with good steel like a Fujiwara or an entry-level carbon(probably better) and learn to sharpen and feel for a burr and then abrade it down, then deburr it.

I know it seems daunting at first, especially when you hear different people say different things...but just give it a try and over time it will become so easy and second nature that you will surprise yourself. Pretty soon you will be looking back and wondering what you got so worked up about it all, and will likely be giving noobs your advice based on your experience. Good luck!

I got one of those Chefs Choice sharpeners several years back. I ran my Henckels utility through it once, put it back in its box, and it sat in the garage for about 5 years. I gave it to my dad about a year ago. He has a set of Globals he sharpens on stones, but he also keeps a set of Chicago Cutlery as "house knives." He has been using the Chef Choice on the Chicago knives, but complains of excessive wear. He feels like it has stripped more steel in the last year than he has in 25 years on the stones.

My advice is avoid power sharpening gadgets at all cost.

-Enjoy the ride. *** All statements made herein are my personal opinion and nothing more, regardless of tone or context. ***

The first time you use the chef's choice, you'll do an average but passable job, the first time you use your stones you'll probably also do an average but passable job. The difference is that on the stones, your sharpening will get better and better each time.